The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Charities unite to keep free food supply flowing during lockdown
The Covid-19 crisis has hit the poorest hard and thrust thousands into poverty. Jack McKeown looks at a project that has been feeding 4,500 people in Dundee
Even before the coronavirus hit, the number of people having to use foodbanks in Britain was a national scandal. With a quarter of the nation’s workforce furloughed, thousands more have been driven into poverty and cannot afford to feed their families.
Like many crises, Covid-19 has brought out the best in humanity. In Dundee, two dozen charities have come together to help cope with the huge amount of extra mouths to feed.
Each project is an independent entity but Faith in Dundee is co-ordinating to support and help them work together. Faith in Dundee director Jacky Close says there has been a huge upsurge in demand for food assistance since the Covid-19 crisis began.
She said: “A lot of people have been furloughed and are having to live on 80% of their salary. Being stuck at home – especially with kids – costs more in energy bills and groceries. A lot of people on zero hours contracts aren’t getting any income at all.
“People have been pushed into poverty. They’ve gone through what savings they had and are struggling to afford food. We’re getting higher numbers of older people and families with lots of children to feed.”
The number of people in Dundee alone needing help to put food on their plates is quite staggering.
“All together we’ve been giving food to around 4,500 people – and that’s not including Dundee Foodbank, which would make that number even higher,” Jacky continued.
“One of the projects we work with, Taught by Muhammad, says they’re helping four times the amount of people they normally would at this time of year.”
Taught by Muhammad project manager Rizwan Rafik says they would have been overwhelmed without additional help. “We’ve never seen a situation like this before,” he said. “Our foodbank has never been anything like as busy as over the past couple of months – and that’s with the help of all these other groups that have started providing food to help people through the crisis. Without them coming on to the scene we wouldn’t have been able to cope.”
Jacky helped secure £27,000 from Dundee-based charity the Northwood Trust, and Dundee City Council has pledged £10,000 a week for 10 weeks.
“The Northwood Trust were fantastic,” Jacky said. “They gave us a really good sum of money and let us disburse it as we see fit. We will be able to keep supplying food until the end of June but after that we need a longerterm strategy.
“People need money as well as food. Increasingly there’s a need for everything from pet food to nappies and toilet rolls.”
The Alex Ferry Foundation has also supplied financial help, while local painter and decorator John Alexander has offered his fleet of vans to deliver food supplies to projects, with his furloughed staff volunteering as drivers. Fruit and veg supplier Les Turriff has offered a discount, adding fresh produce to the food supplies going out to people.
“The generosity has been amazing,” Jacky explained. “I’m astounded at how people are volunteering their time, effort and money. There’s a real desire to help one another.”
Every Monday morning Jacky has a Zoom meeting with the 24 grassroots projects involved. “I listen to all 24 of the projects and find out what the priorities are in their communities. That helps the council know where to focus their energy.
“Most of the projects are run by faith-based communities,” she said. “Before the current crisis most ran a drop-in centre where you ate what you want and paid what you could, which was a very dignified approach.
“Some of these have had to close but some have been able to respond to government guidelines and offer a limited service.”
Although the Dundee projects have helped thousands of people Jacky is extremely concerned about the future.
“Dundee has always had a high level of poverty. That level of poverty has gone up and is going to stay up. We’re about to hit one of the biggest recessions of our lifetimes. We’re going to see more people in sustained poverty and it’s not their fault,” she said.
What more could the government do to help?
“There needs to be a strategic plan from the government through local councils to groups like the ones we work with that know their communities best,” said Jacky.
“We need a plan for at least the next year, if not well beyond. The damage caused by this virus is not going to go away for a long time.”
To donate, go to www.justgiving. com/campaign/cv19fooddundee